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Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Alpha Mail: CS Lewis spotted Gammas

In retrospect, this should come as no surprise from the man who created the great character of Eustace Scrubb:

I get daily readings from C.S. Lewis' writings (via biblegateway.com), and today's excerpt sounds like he's describing Gammas:"I am very puzzled by people like your Committee Secretary, people who are just nasty. I find it easier to understand the great crimes, for the raw material of them exists in us all; the mere disagreeableness which seems to spring from no recognisable passion is mysterious. (Like the total stranger in a train of whom I once asked ‘Do you know when we get to Liverpool’ and who replied ‘I’m not paid to answer your questions: ask the guard’).

I have found it more among boys than anyone else. That makes me think it really comes from inner insecurity—a dim sense that one is Nobody, a strong determination to be Somebody, and a belief that this can be achieved by arrogance."
- From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III

It's funny, though, that he seems to find it more in boys than girls, since "gamma-ness" is similar to "female imperative" in your observations. Perhaps women and girls had enough class (or enough fear of public condemnation) in Lewis' day to keep it concealed in public .

25 comments:

I did notice it recently, though, when a friend of mine was really weird in a debate. It was a subject that I know very well and is central to my profession. He just kept arguing, even though he was clearly wrong and I was embarrassed for him, because he seemed unable to admit it. I was stunned to realize that this acquaintance was a gamma, and then all the other stuff, when I thought about it, fell into line.

Gamma behavior can be exhibited by anyone under a given circumstance. Your over all ranking is separate issue. Keep an eye on this friend, though. You might find an opportunity to help a bro' man up.....carefully though, if he is a true, natural Gamma it might not be possible.

Funny you should say that. His character, as portrayed in *Shadowlands* (1993), I thought was pretty gamma, delta at best (not that I used such designations at the time). I was frustrated at how Joy played him. Of course, it was just a movie...

Gammas are trying to be assertive - they get the wrong side of Alpha behavior and mannerisms. Trying to be assertive without showing confidence or leadership appears and simple nastiness and arrogance.

But they also confuse right sounds for the right sides - one of the reasons the enemy in Hideous Strength is called the N.I.C.E. and their current regenerating tentacles, Political Correctness (who wants to be apolitical or incorrect) or Social Justice Warriors (Who wants to be antisocial or unjust - but the whining "Warrior" part is pure Gamma).

I'm working my way through the Space Trilogy for the first time since high school. I was honestly too young and too OMEGA back then to really get them. But his is turning out to be something of a treat for me.

It is possible to follow SJW politics and be an Alpha. You have to remember Alpha is just a rank on the socio-sexual hierarchy.

It has nothing to do with whether or not you are good man.

Although Kluwe is no fucking Alpha. He is a Gamma who USED to able to kick and that's it.

Kickers aren't really part of any team. They just aren't. They almost never get hit at all. They do their one special thing and are protected by a line when they do it. The rest of the team tends to view them as the recipients of Borrowed Honor.

Kluwe is a Gamma who actually had the magic gift which made him a semi-public secret king and then his hip went bad.

The fact that when he got cut the first thing he did was blame his politics tells you everything you need to know about the guy. If he really got cut for politics why isn't he playing for somebody more tolerant?

It doesn't matter if you drive the right car (Elliot Rogers) or have the billion dollar empire (Mark Zuckerberg). Or was a former NFL kicker (Chris Kluwe).

Those status symbols are only the trappings of a successful Alpha. We live in a rich society where you can lottery win your way into acquiring Alpha male status symbols. Deltas and Gammas focus on those things because they are tangible. Bad news, it doesn't matter if you have any of those things or not.

What determines genuine Alpha status is ENTIRELY INTANGIBLE.

Big picture time. Being an Alpha is not in fact about how women react to you.

It is about how other men react to you.

That is the truth of it.

If you are the guy who walks into a room and every man knows that you are fucker in charge just because you walked into that room. You are the alpha.

IF you are that guy. The women automatically follow because that is the quality that women want in a man. That is the vibe they seek. That is what instantly turns panties into moist towelettes.

I assure you that never happened to Chris Kluwe once, the entire time he was in the NFL. He was a kicker. His biggest trait is resentment. Resentment doesn't turn women on.

In my line of work I often meet military men. Many of them are physically tough, dominating, and have strong "command presence". They are decorated for bravery, and other men are willing to follow them into combat.

So, that's alpha, right?

Except that same guy can be a nauseating beta when it comes to women. Supplicating, white knighting, pedestalizing. He might have medals on his shirt but she wears the pants. Some of it, I think, comes from the idiotic notions of "chivalry" that they are more likely to have than the average man.

There's two things at work here. 1. The military is excellent training ground for Alphas but you are almost never around women because the military is still pretty much all male(Obama's Dumb-fuckery not withstanding)

And 2. Stupidity regarding women is actively encouraged by the civilian leadership. Consent is Sexy is now required annual training in the Armed Forces and I wish to Almighty Blorf that I was making that shit up.

Dostoevsky has a detailed portrait of a Gamma in Notes from the Underground..the character invites himself to a private dinner between a few friends, and while there spends THREE HOURS pacing back and forth along the room to show them how far above them he thinks he is. Dostoevsky spends a lot of time on the character's introspection, in all its vain repulsiveness, and shows how this oozes out through his actions to create unpleasantness and pain for others.

It's not a perfect correlation. The Hierarchy as Vox has implicitly defined it is a loose categorization of personality types, which have a strong trend in SMV. Who has more SMV - John Scalzi after winning a 600 million dollar powerball jackpot, or Hugh Hefner after bankruptcy and a colostomy bag installation?